Setting aside politics, the Southern Poverty Law Center's hate map is just as sloppy as could be. I spent a lot of time highlighting the case of Casa D'Ice Signs which appeared on the SPLC's list of hate groups.
Casa D'Ice was a bar in Pennsylvania. It had politically incorrect signs outside the bar.
Yes, the SPLC listed a bar sign as a hate group.
But the sloppiness pervades the SPLC's hate map. My blog was listed as a hate group. As were a number of other single author blogs.
And then there's this story.
On Monday, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) removed the historic Iowa town Amana Colonies from its "hate map" that inspired a terrorist attack in 2012.
"We're thrilled for them changing the map and correcting it to what it should be, and not having the Amanas as a hate group," David Rettig, executive director of the Amana Colonies Convention and Visitors Bureau, told the Iowa City Press-Bulletin.
The SPLC "had previously designated the historic settlement as the home of the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi and white supremacy news and commentary organization," the Press-Bulletin reported. On Monday, one of the Amanas leaders received word that the SPLC had changed Daily Stormer's designation to "statewide."
The town had previously contested the claim, but the SPLC had stood by its marking the Amanas on the "hate map." Why? The organization claimed "it had confirmation that a group of individuals met sometime in September 2016 at a restaurant in the Amanas."
"The First Iowa Stormer Bookclub was a success!" a user with the screen name Concerned Troll posted in a September 26, 2016, thread. Concerned Troll did not provide specific details about the visit, but went on to suggest a subsequent meeting in Des Moines.
Local officials shot back, explaining that there are no such groups active in Iowa County. Amanas leaders denounced hate groups and their activities, saying none of their messages or activities are welcome in their town. They demanded that the SPLC remove their community from the "hate map."
In other words, there was no actual reason to believe that the Neo-Nazi site was based out of Amanas. The SPLC just liked the idea of a map. And it did as little research possible to just give it some location. Any location. And the SPLC got to put up another red dot on its scary map.
The facts didn't matter.
And that sums up the SPLC. Aside from all its other bad qualities, it's shamelessly sloppy.
The continued use of the SPLC by progressive organizations as an authoritative source is an admission that they too don't care about the facts.